From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 293 Boarding Battle

What happened to Lieutenant Larry's HCP squadron and the reconnaissance unit where the squadron was located was just a microcosm of the various reconnaissance units on the outer perimeter.

Almost all the reconnaissance teams discovered traces of the federal fleet in their reconnaissance areas, and some HCP teams sent by the reconnaissance teams also encountered the same enemy situation as Lieutenant Larry and others.

In situations like the second team, where only one person was killed, these HCP teams are considered lucky.

Many HCP teams that were performing CSP missions were drowned in a series of attacks before they even had time to fight back.

At this time, in the combat command center of Gospel Fortress, Duke Hastings was looking seriously at the scene displayed on the holographic projection platform.

With the area where the main fleet is located as the center, the huge 'celestial sphere' with a radius of 60-70 kilometers is the outer warning area of ​​the two battle groups.

And now, a large number of red signs representing 'engage the enemy' are flashing on the outermost warning circle.

These densely packed red signs almost surround the entire celestial sphere, which means that the enemy may attack in all directions.

"It seems that gravitational wave radar is not omnipotent. Duke and William did not inform us of this."

A magnetic female voice sounded next to the Duke of Hastings.

Duke Artesia, who was staying at the Tranquility Fortress Operation Command Center, had a light blue virtual image projected onto Duke Hastings' side by the projection equipment.

Battle Group B led by the Duchess is currently deployed in a back-to-back arrangement 6 kilometers away from Battle Group A.

The two imperial celestial fortress battle groups, like two dragon turtles, protected each other's six o'clock position.

"Hmph, if you expect them to tell you this, you might as well expect the federal fleet to retreat."

The Duke of Hastings's voice had no emotion, and his whole person was like a piece of ice, exuding the aura of being kept away from strangers.

"You know? Someone told me before that you and Duke Duke are similar. I didn't believe it before, but now I wonder if you two are long-lost brothers? You keep a poker face every day."

Duke Artesia smiled sweetly, and an aura called 'mature female charm' was released, but unfortunately it had no effect on Hastings.

"Let's get down to business."

"Okay, okay, let's continue talking about the problem of gravitational wave radar. It is definitely no problem to carry out strategic reconnaissance. We have also discovered the movements of two federal fleets before.
But this time I don't know why, it just seems to be 'out of order'. "

Duke Artesia instantly returned to his normal expression, crossed his arms and looked at the star map carefully and said.

"This shows that the other party is serious about it this time. Don't forget that Trafalgar across the way and the federal navy fleet under his command have been dealing with the artificial celestial fortress for a year.

If there was no way to deal with it, everything would have been wiped out by the fortress cannons." Hastings spoke very fast, but his words were still clear.
"If the opponent's large-scale fleet mobilization is from the vicinity of one planet to the vicinity of another planet, it can indeed avoid the detection of gravitational wave radar with the help of planetary interference.

Moreover, this was originally a federal galaxy. We have enough reasons to believe that they know this galaxy much better than we do, and they definitely have more than a few such jump coordinates.
As for the small fleet in the outer warning zone, they are not the detection targets of the gravitational wave radar. Otherwise, we would not have to deploy so many reconnaissance teams to patrol the warning zone. "

"So, do you think this is a test? Or are they unable to hold back and want to attack us?"

Duke Artesia furrowed her delicate eyebrows. Although she was the only woman among the five great dukes in the empire, she was definitely a strong woman with strong blood and no ambiguity in her battle command.

"If it's just a test, isn't this movement too big? There are at least more than 300 enemy reconnaissance teams active in our warning circle.

According to the news sent back by the frontline troops, these federal reconnaissance detachments have a high fighting will and are almost desperate to compress our outer defense circle.

Coupled with the fact that the opponent's main fleet has not been found for a long time, I have reason to suspect that the Federation is planning a large-scale attack. "

"A massive attack fleet decisive battle, right?"

Duke Artesia laughed, and then continued:

"Then that's playing into your hands. We've been maintaining this unity, aren't we just trying to force the main force of the federal navy to confront us head-on?"

"Yes, that's why I have a hunch that this battle may directly affect the direction of this war."

When he said these words, Duke Hastings's face still had a look of "no wave in the ancient well". No one in the combat command center could guess what he was really thinking through his expression.

"So, wise Lord Duke of Hastings, how do you think Marshal Trafalgar of the Federation will fight this fleet battle?"
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"Boarding battle."

Amber, who was sitting at the desk looking at the star map, said in her mind without hesitation.

At this moment, he and Lilith were paying attention to the situation on the battlefield. After the "autonomous quantum communication node" in the warring galaxy monitored a large amount of information from both sides, Amber had determined that the Federation Navy was preparing to launch a large-scale attack. A large number of encounters on the outer warning circle of the Empire's celestial fortress battle group were caused by the federal fleet releasing a large number of small fleets that avoided gravitational wave radar detection and were conducting 'deportation warning'.

The purpose is to compress the warning range of the imperial battle group and create a better environment for yourself to take the lead.

When Lilith asked Amber how the Federation Navy would fight, Amber gave the answer "broadside battle" without hesitation.

"The Focusing Rainbow of the Celestial Fortress is currently 'invincible in frontal combat'. Its lethality is so strong that even if the Federation fleet can crush the opponent in terms of numbers, it cannot withstand the strafing fire of this thing.

As long as Trafalgar is not a fool, he will not adopt conventional methods of engaging the enemy, not to mention that he has been dealing with the Celestial Fortress for so long, let alone stepping on minefields like this. "

"So Master thinks he will adopt the method of 'boarding battle' to maximize strengths and avoid weaknesses?"

"In fact, it can't be called 'leveraging strengths and avoiding weaknesses'. At best, it just reduces the 'weight' of the Celestial Fortress in determining the outcome of the battle.

When one's own fleet and the enemy's fleet are entangled, at least it is difficult for the 'Focusing Rainbow' to have a chance to attack. "

As Amber spoke, he called up a three-dimensional model of the celestial fortress. This was a rough model he made based on his own memory and some intelligence he had collected previously.

"The design of the empire's man-made celestial fortress is actually more of a weapon for defense. Even if it is used for offense, it is still more suitable for defensive tasks at the tactical level. This is why this thing was developed The name of the project is 'Wall of Sighs'."

While putting this model into the star map to simulate the imperial battle group, Amber recalled in her mind the discussions of players in previous lives about this thing, and then continued:

"According to the ideas of the Imperial Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the most basic point of building an artificial celestial fortress is that it cannot be breached from the front.

The fleet of the battle group is more used to protect the flanks and rear of the man-made celestial fortress, allowing the fortress to concentrate on dealing with enemies on the front.

The ultra-large gravitational wave radar array equipped in the Celestial Fortress is also designed to detect the enemy's movements at extremely long distances, and then use the focusing rainbow to carry out attacks that the opponent cannot 'retaliate'. "

"So what the commander of the Imperial Battle Group is doing now is to conduct defensive operations and then force the Federation to take the initiative to attack?"

"Yes, the empire's battle command gave full play to the characteristics of the celestial fortresses. He directly arranged the two celestial fortresses 'back to back', turning the battle group into a turtle shell.

This should be the work of the Duke of Hastings. To be honest, he is much smarter than Duke and William, the two guys who run around with the Celestial Fortress.

In this case, no matter what direction Trafalgar attacks according to the regular pattern, he will be shot into a fool by the Focusing Iris.

So his only option was to engage in a boarding battle. "

Lilith in the virtual space nodded. While listening to Amber's explanation, she was also reading a lot of books about space warfare to improve her 'Fleet Command' level.

"If it's a boarding battle, is it to directly jump the fleet into the opponent's face? Doesn't it mean that the jump coordinates must be grasped very accurately?"

"That's right, it's probably a distance of more than 10,000 kilometers to reach the Imperial battle group directly by jumping in.
However, the difficulty in this operation is not actually the accuracy of the coordinates. I believe it is impossible for Trafalgar to not have this information on its home court.

The real difficulty is keeping the Imperial battle group in place, waiting for the Federation fleet to jump in their face.

Because once the empire’s celestial fortress battle group begins to maneuver, even a very short-distance tactical maneuver will invalidate the previously calibrated jump coordinates.”

Having said this, Amber also fell into thinking, trying to lead herself into the thoughts of Marshal Trafalgar.

"What on earth would you do?"
-
"Your Excellency, the gravitational wave radar has discovered a target with the characteristics of a large fleet and is identifying it!"

"It's finally here"

After hearing the report from the Tactical Information Coordinator, Duke Hastings felt relieved.

"Report! Targets suspected of being a large fleet were detected in areas A2, B7, F6, and I1 at the same time!"

"Report! Battle Group B sent news that multiple targets suspected of large-scale fleets have appeared in the area where they are defending the hemisphere!"

Targets that were suspected to be enemy fleets were marked on the star map, and were successively confirmed as federal fleets in the identification of the intelligence processing center.

Looking at the star map located 260 million kilometers directly in front of the Gospel Fortress, a federal fleet had just completed its jump and was trying to hide behind the huge planet in the war zone.

Duke Hastings said decisively:
"Pass my command, the 'Focusing Rainbow' is ready for irradiation! The target is the federal fleet 260 million kilometers directly in front of the fortress!"

(End of this chapter)